From the 70th Birthday Exhibition For George ~ The Story of George.
Once upon a time
in a suburb of Liverpool, called Wavertree, was born to Harold and Louise their youngest child George. He had an older sister called Louise and two brothers Harold and Peter. They lived in a tiny terraced house with a toilet out the back. They were a very happy, noisy little lot and the lack of money did not seem to matter as they always managed to get by on Harold's wages as a Bus Driver for Liverpool Corporation and Louise would earn a bit extra for the family where she could. In those days people cut their cloth according to their means - they were the war years and everyone seemed to be in the same boat.
"The front room was never used. It had the posh lino and a three-piece suite, was freezing cold and no-one ever went in it. We huddled together in the kitchen, where the fire was, with the kettle on, and a little iron cooking stove" remembered George later.
He also showed his kindness at this time - when his Mother and he came out from the cinema he insisted he gave an old man that he saw some money. In fact he could not see why they should not give money to every old person they met. He loved the cinema, enjoying saturday morning watching cartoons by Disney, westerns and epics. He cried his eyes out in Bambi. One day he would have the chance to make a film he really wanted to see...
In the 90's George told a reporter for Billboard that he had in fact been born at 11.50 pm on the 24th february but this could have been a wind up as his sister very clearly stated he was born at 12.10 on the 25th. It was also stated that his Mother would always call him just after midnight every year on the 25th february to wish him a happy birthday.
George was a helpful little boy and always cheerfully offered to do the jobs that his siblings ducked out of. He was as bright as a new penny and did not need a shopping list to run errands for his Mum at the local shops. After the first walk from 12 Arnold Grove to his school Dovedale Primary (just round the corner from Penny Lane) he told his Mum he did not need to walk with her anymore as he did not want her gossiping at the gates with the other mothers!
He would run along the jiggers to visit his grandparents in the next street, Albert Grove, and the houses are very much as they were then. He would go to Church with his Mum and siblings to Our Lady of Good Help which was round the corner in Chestnut Grove. The Church too remains very much the same with the same marble font in which George was baptised. His family were of Irish descent. (Interestingly, he was not registered for Religious Studies at school.) Some sundays the choir have a guitar and mandolin playing - of which George would approve. It is easy to picture George there as a little boy as families still attend mass as a group, as they would have then.
The family enjoyed having get togethers and he would creep out onto the upper landing and listen to the music and the laughter from below- this music played a bit part in the structure of his later compositions with their descending and minor chords.
He also liked to entertain the family and visitors with a glove puppet from behind the sofa. They called him "Geo".
"The front room was never used. It had the posh lino and a three-piece suite, was freezing cold and no-one ever went in it. We huddled together in the kitchen, where the fire was, with the kettle on, and a little iron cooking stove" remembered George later.
He also showed his kindness at this time - when his Mother and he came out from the cinema he insisted he gave an old man that he saw some money. In fact he could not see why they should not give money to every old person they met. He loved the cinema, enjoying saturday morning watching cartoons by Disney, westerns and epics. He cried his eyes out in Bambi. One day he would have the chance to make a film he really wanted to see...
In the 90's George told a reporter for Billboard that he had in fact been born at 11.50 pm on the 24th february but this could have been a wind up as his sister very clearly stated he was born at 12.10 on the 25th. It was also stated that his Mother would always call him just after midnight every year on the 25th february to wish him a happy birthday.
George was a helpful little boy and always cheerfully offered to do the jobs that his siblings ducked out of. He was as bright as a new penny and did not need a shopping list to run errands for his Mum at the local shops. After the first walk from 12 Arnold Grove to his school Dovedale Primary (just round the corner from Penny Lane) he told his Mum he did not need to walk with her anymore as he did not want her gossiping at the gates with the other mothers!
He would run along the jiggers to visit his grandparents in the next street, Albert Grove, and the houses are very much as they were then. He would go to Church with his Mum and siblings to Our Lady of Good Help which was round the corner in Chestnut Grove. The Church too remains very much the same with the same marble font in which George was baptised. His family were of Irish descent. (Interestingly, he was not registered for Religious Studies at school.) Some sundays the choir have a guitar and mandolin playing - of which George would approve. It is easy to picture George there as a little boy as families still attend mass as a group, as they would have then.
The family enjoyed having get togethers and he would creep out onto the upper landing and listen to the music and the laughter from below- this music played a bit part in the structure of his later compositions with their descending and minor chords.
He also liked to entertain the family and visitors with a glove puppet from behind the sofa. They called him "Geo".
12 Arnold Grove (built 1890's) now...
This photo of the house George was born in was taken with a camera that actually once belonged to him in 1965. |
George's baptismal font.
Our Lady of Good Help- a stone's throw from 12 Arnold Grove. Entire families attend as they did in 1943. |
When he was six his family moved to the borough of Speke which was a new housing estate near the Airport. Whilst the house had amenities such as an inside toilet, George did not like his new surroundings very much. He also moved schools when he was 11 years old to the Liverpool Institute in the centre of the city. This involved a long commute of at least an hour each way on the bus.
Liverpool Institute did not meet with his approval either and from the earliest he resolved to be a bit of a rebel. This he did not in a noisy way but simply by falling asleep at the back of the class. He often awoke to find class was over. Whereas he had taken part quite happily in sports, excelling at swimming and football he now developed a passionate interest in music - and more specifically the guitar. One of his reports famously stated that the Master in question could not comment on his work - as he had not done any! He was a kind boy though and he would elect to sit next to the fat boy in class - this usually being a punishment dealt out by the teachers at the time.
He spent his time in class drawing pictures of guitars with fancy "f" holes and cutaways and one day his dream came true when his Mum lent him the £3 10s he needed to buy an Egmond from another boy at school. His Mum encouraged him all she could and sometimes he practised till his fingers bled. One day he took apart the neck piece and not knowing how to re-assemble it, he hid it in the cupboard till his brother Harry took pity on him and helped him put it back together again.
He formed a band called The Rebels - the height of their career was playing at the British Legion and playing the one song they knew all night to rousing applause. He could not stop telling his family about the night!
Then one day there occurred those magical moments that alter the course of history forever. He was on the bus to school and a boy got on at the next stop. He saw the boy laughing at his reflection in the glass and so thought he must be a decent sort and made friends with him. This was Paul McCartney. As Paul was nine months older than him, they were not in the same class at The Institute but they would get together at lunch times to play and also after school. Paul's Father was very supportive too and so both homes were venues for them to indulge their young fantasies.
They would also take a trip to nearby Hale Village and spend time on the small beach. One year they set off on a hitch hiking holiday to the South of England. They soon ran out of money and had to sleep on the beach, thereby making the discovery that sand was not soft to sleep on. They also hit on the idea of asking the local Police for a cell for the night but were directed to a nearby sports ground. The morning saw them legging it from the irate groundsman who found them there. But images from that time show a very happy pair of boys getting brown from the sun.
George liked to dress very nattily - for school he had tapered his trousers on his Mother's treadle machine till they were skin tight and he wore a bright yellow waistcoat. He would also wear his school badge on a safety pin so it could easily be flipped inside the pocket so that when he was out of school it appeared that he only had a blazer on. On the holiday he wore tight sweaters and a flat cap giving him a rather jaunty air!
George, famously had an eye for the ladies and his first girlfriend was Iris Cauldwell - sister of the rather famous Rory Cauldwell - also known as Rory Storm (and the Hurricanes). One day Rory teasingly announced from the tanoy system at the local youth club that his sister stuffed her bra with cotton wool. Iris ran out mortified and in tears. Kind hearted George ran after her and they shared their first kiss.
He would visit her at her house and they would sit hand in hand and watch the telly. Vi, Iris's Mother, was very fond of George. The innocent little romance lasted a couple of years. It was Iris' birthday and George arrived a bit late with his best mate Arthur Kelly. Both were resplendent in their italian suits. A party game was in progress. Each girl had taken the name of a fruit and put the name on a ticket and the boys would then choose a ticket and have a kiss with the "fruit". When George saw who was left he declared "I'm not hungry" and Iris was incensed that her friends had been insulted in this way!( She went on to date Paul and also Frank Ifield at the same time. She married Shane Fenton - later Alvin Stardust - and of course George, himself, was never short of a lady on his arm!)
As did most children his age, George had a little part time job to earn a bit of spending money. He ran errands for a Butcher at Hunts Cross. He had a bike on which he would pile the packages for delivery to various customers on his round. George's Mother worked at a greengrocer in the same parade and by all accounts was a very funny, warm, good humoured lady always telling jokes.
Liverpool Institute did not meet with his approval either and from the earliest he resolved to be a bit of a rebel. This he did not in a noisy way but simply by falling asleep at the back of the class. He often awoke to find class was over. Whereas he had taken part quite happily in sports, excelling at swimming and football he now developed a passionate interest in music - and more specifically the guitar. One of his reports famously stated that the Master in question could not comment on his work - as he had not done any! He was a kind boy though and he would elect to sit next to the fat boy in class - this usually being a punishment dealt out by the teachers at the time.
He spent his time in class drawing pictures of guitars with fancy "f" holes and cutaways and one day his dream came true when his Mum lent him the £3 10s he needed to buy an Egmond from another boy at school. His Mum encouraged him all she could and sometimes he practised till his fingers bled. One day he took apart the neck piece and not knowing how to re-assemble it, he hid it in the cupboard till his brother Harry took pity on him and helped him put it back together again.
He formed a band called The Rebels - the height of their career was playing at the British Legion and playing the one song they knew all night to rousing applause. He could not stop telling his family about the night!
Then one day there occurred those magical moments that alter the course of history forever. He was on the bus to school and a boy got on at the next stop. He saw the boy laughing at his reflection in the glass and so thought he must be a decent sort and made friends with him. This was Paul McCartney. As Paul was nine months older than him, they were not in the same class at The Institute but they would get together at lunch times to play and also after school. Paul's Father was very supportive too and so both homes were venues for them to indulge their young fantasies.
They would also take a trip to nearby Hale Village and spend time on the small beach. One year they set off on a hitch hiking holiday to the South of England. They soon ran out of money and had to sleep on the beach, thereby making the discovery that sand was not soft to sleep on. They also hit on the idea of asking the local Police for a cell for the night but were directed to a nearby sports ground. The morning saw them legging it from the irate groundsman who found them there. But images from that time show a very happy pair of boys getting brown from the sun.
George liked to dress very nattily - for school he had tapered his trousers on his Mother's treadle machine till they were skin tight and he wore a bright yellow waistcoat. He would also wear his school badge on a safety pin so it could easily be flipped inside the pocket so that when he was out of school it appeared that he only had a blazer on. On the holiday he wore tight sweaters and a flat cap giving him a rather jaunty air!
George, famously had an eye for the ladies and his first girlfriend was Iris Cauldwell - sister of the rather famous Rory Cauldwell - also known as Rory Storm (and the Hurricanes). One day Rory teasingly announced from the tanoy system at the local youth club that his sister stuffed her bra with cotton wool. Iris ran out mortified and in tears. Kind hearted George ran after her and they shared their first kiss.
He would visit her at her house and they would sit hand in hand and watch the telly. Vi, Iris's Mother, was very fond of George. The innocent little romance lasted a couple of years. It was Iris' birthday and George arrived a bit late with his best mate Arthur Kelly. Both were resplendent in their italian suits. A party game was in progress. Each girl had taken the name of a fruit and put the name on a ticket and the boys would then choose a ticket and have a kiss with the "fruit". When George saw who was left he declared "I'm not hungry" and Iris was incensed that her friends had been insulted in this way!( She went on to date Paul and also Frank Ifield at the same time. She married Shane Fenton - later Alvin Stardust - and of course George, himself, was never short of a lady on his arm!)
As did most children his age, George had a little part time job to earn a bit of spending money. He ran errands for a Butcher at Hunts Cross. He had a bike on which he would pile the packages for delivery to various customers on his round. George's Mother worked at a greengrocer in the same parade and by all accounts was a very funny, warm, good humoured lady always telling jokes.
25 Upton Green now
Matt has been here since George's family moved out. |
The view from George's window
George spent many hours in this room- this is where he returned when he was deported from Hamburg for being under age... He spent the formative years of his life in this little house, making the hour long journey to school every day and back and later to work at Blacklers as an apprentice electrican. From little acorns do great oaks indeed grow.
|
Snazzy George!
And then fate stepped in yet again... Paul had met an older lad called John Lennon at the annual Woolton Village fete and had joined his band The Quarrymen.
One day George went along to one of their gigs at Wilton Hall in Garston. Paul persuaded John to let George have an audition on the top deck of the bus on the way home one night - George played "Raunchy" note perfect - and that was it....
To Be Continued!
